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Hi,

FMOD Ex got my interest because of the wide capabilities of it .
At first I thought it would be interesting for my projects as I’m a musician/soundeditor. Probably using it for multimedia purposes.
Yet a little new to FMOD Ex. Minor experience with coding.

At second I like game modding (which are ‘allowed’ to be modded) and aware of the use of FSB files in games.

So, actually I thought it would be nice to create a fsb file by myself by using FMOD Sample Bank Generator Ex 1.68 (comes with FMOD EX..Api, win32, stable version 4.28.04, WIN XP SP3).

But, keep getting this error: [b:3p9bexz7]"ERROR – A dll was missing for this format or the environment wasn’t setup properly".[/b:3p9bexz7]

This occurs when I have set the output to PC, MPEG Layer 3.
It doesn’t occur when I’ve set the output to PC, PCM (1:1).
But the PCM setting gives me huge output files.

If I’m using the ‘old’ FMOD 3 API’s Sample Bank Generator, creation of a fsb file works fine but don’t has the option Mpeg Layer3, only PCM 1:1 which gives me a smaller fsb than the SBG Ex 1.86 by using the same content and output setting.

Likely, in the future I realy want to continue with the use of FMOD Ex and all of it’s features. But before learning and spitting out the usage it’s most important for me to get the software work properly or else it has no much meaning at all. I’m a little bit stucked here, in the very beginning by simply creating a fsb file. I’ve no clue what’s allready going wrong at this stage. May be missing some issues, allthough I tried to find an answer in the Help pages and on this forum, but yet it’s a little hocus pocus (not dumb but noob).

So finally my question is:
Why I keep getting this output error and which dll is missing or what environment should I set to let it work?
(I’ve tried both the latest stable and developers versions).

Or…could it be a license issue? (in case, I didn’t find or notice this in any information I looked up).

[quote:2q0h3j6j]when playback the fsb, the sound has pitched and stutters (sounds like rapidly skipping, playing at abnormal higher speed). [/quote:2q0h3j6j]
How are you testing the FSB? If you’re testing it in an old game can you try testing it in the ‘fsb’ example program that ships with the API. (rename your fsb to example.fsb and copy it to the examples/media directory then press 1 to hear the first subsound)

The stuttering and pitch problems could possibly be due to our custom behaviour of looping MP3. Can you try doing a build with "Disable Loop Encoding" set to on?

[quote:2q0h3j6j]Am I able to use the FMOD v4.28.04 in the future? (without the dll error) [/quote:2q0h3j6j]
Since you have the dll file from version 4.28.00 you can download 4.28.04 and just copy the dll into the right directory. That will fix the dll error, I have just tracked down the problems and the next version will go out with all required dlls.

Thanks for your responce.
I’ve tested the fsb like you said.(fsb PC, mpeg layer3 build, disable loop encoding on, no headers, single fsb).
Still got the pitching and stuttering when playback.
Usually I use MusicPlayerEx (makes use of it’s integrated fmod libraries) as tester. Both the player and game playbacks the same pitching and stuttering.
Even the mpeg layer2 build is sometimes pitching and stuttering but less.
Did not find out how to test it your way, did renaming and so on. Pressing 1 didn’t give me a sound or example.

[quote:q9aw6o1r]Since you have the dll file from version 4.28.00 you can download 4.28.04 and just copy the dll into the right directory. That will fix the dll error, I have just tracked down the problems and the next version will go out with all required dlls.[/quote:q9aw6o1r]

Ok I suspect that MusicPlayerEx has an old FMOD version as does the game you’re using to test.

[quote:2hudazal]Did not find out how to test it your way, did renaming and so on. Pressing 1 didn’t give me a sound or example. [/quote:2hudazal]
My bad, my instructions weren’t that clear. You have to copy your fsb to the examples/media/example.fsb and overwrite that file. Then go to examples/bin and run "fsb.exe". It will bring up a console window containing the names of the subsounds, listen to each subsound in the fsb.

If some subsounds are correct and others are glitchy, it might be a problem with mixed formats of the sound files you’re using to generate the fsb.

Oke, thanks for your responce.
I’ve downloaded and installed the new fmod api and designer 4.28.05.
No errors and doing a fsb build with mpeg layer3 option works fine.
Even the playback with fsb.exe (your discription) does do the job and plays the renamed example.fsb at normal speed without any glitches, pitching or stuttering.
I’ve tested it with the same files where I started with all the way (mp3 files with all the same bitrates 128 kbps).
However, when playback the fsb with MusicPlayerEx the stuttering/glitching got even worse. But you explained that issue.(old version).
In the game there’s now no sound/playback at all. (Need For Speed Shift, can’t imaging it’s using an old version but don’t know for sure..can’t check it).
The fsb builded with both the adpcm and mpeg layer2 settings works fines for now and is quit satisfying.
But still prefer the mpeg layer3 setting, guess I can’t use it for the game..

I hope you have some other advise or suggestions.
My main issue is to get the fsb file as small as possible.
Like I said..mpeg layer2 does the job.

[quote:20wc041f]Need For Speed Shift, can’t imaging it’s using an old version but don’t know for sure..can’t check it[/quote:20wc041f]
You would be surprised. Games spend a long time in development, usually by the time they’re released, the versions of middleware they use is quite old.

[quote:20wc041f]I hope you have some other advise or suggestions.
My main issue is to get the fsb file as small as possible.
Like I said..mpeg layer2 does the job. [/quote:20wc041f]
mpeg2 is a good format, if you’re planning on releasing or distributing your files to anyone there can be licensing issues with MP3. If it’s just a personal project you can use MP3. The easiest way to get MP3 working in the games would be to try out some older version of FSBANK. I would advise going by major branch, so 4.28.xx, 4.26.xx, 4.24.xx, 4.22.xx until you find something that works.

[quote:2uvmvlcw]You would be surprised. Games spend a long time in development, usually by the time they’re released, the versions of middleware they use is quite old.[/quote:2uvmvlcw]

Guess you are right about it, no doubt. That explains a lot.

Anyway…
Thanks for the advise, suggestions and great help on this all.
Now I know more about FMOD, I’m going to use it mainly for my multimedia projects. It has great features to build streamings and so on.

Didn’t think about the licensing issue, honestly…too enthousiastic about creating a custom fsb with FMOD. Glad you mentioned it. The mod was ment to be a personal project but later on the idea was to share it on the modding community (thus, on the internet). Think it’s better to leave it personal. Still can share the mod without the custom fsb.

Oke, now everythings goes well with FMOD, it’s time for me to learn more and use it a lot.
So, keep up the good work, it’s great!

The error your seeing is caused by the missing mp3 encoder dll. Can you go to your FMOD install directory see if inside "…/FMOD Programmers API Win32/tools/fsbanklib" there is a "libmp3lame.dll" file. If it’s not there then you can try reinstalling FMOD.

Thanks for your responce and welcome.
The dll is there just where you said it should be.
I’ve tried to reinstall FMOD but this doesn’t solve the error.
Have tried both the developers and stable versions (latest) to reinstall.
Could it be a conflict with other codecs from programs like K-Lite Codecpack.

For your info:
I’m using a XFi Platinum soundcard, latest drivers. Don’t know if it has to do with it. Just in case.
Running on WinXP Home SP3.

Now trying to uninstall FMOD and K-Lite, run a registry cleaner, restart and reinstall FMOD.

[i:1mivfbal][b:1mivfbal][u:1mivfbal]EDIT: after the action above, it has no effect. Still get the same error.[/b:1mivfbal][/i:1mivfbal][/u:1mivfbal]

I’ve downloaded and installed FMOD version 4.28.00.
Converting to PC – mpeg layer3 seems to work now.
No error message.
But…when playback the fsb, the sound has pitched and stutters (sounds like rapidly skipping, playing at abnormal higher speed).
When converting to PC – mpeg layer2 the playback behaves normal.

So the error of missing dll is gone,
but the converting to mp3 results to a bad fsb.
Am I able to use the FMOD v4.28.04 in the future? (without the dll error)